


Restful

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-08
Packaged: 2019-10-06 22:10:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17353544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Willow relaxes with her boyfriend and her dog and takes a chance to reflect on some things. Willow belongs to willownorthbook and Jay belongs to SpaceUnicornDot.





	Restful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [willownorthbook](https://archiveofourown.org/users/willownorthbook/gifts).



Few things in this world were for certain, especially when this particular part of the world was prone to world-ending threats on a near-weekly basis. But, through all that she'd been through, the struggles and trials not just in her personal life but also in her life as a Keeper of the Light... Willow had one certainty. One constant. He was currently lying by her side, spooning her on the bed that they shared, his long fingers deftly weaving her hair into braids. He loved to braid her hair.

Jay seemed to have come out of nowhere. One day, he'd just turned up, Izzy having brought him along to introduce the two. Willow hadn't known that there was anything different about him at first, only the fact that one of his eyes was a mixture of brown and blue. It was a beautiful kind of heterochromia. And it had immediately taken Willow's breath away, though she'd been careful at first. So careful. She hadn't wanted to fall in love after Kai, hadn't ever wanted to make herself vulnerable like that again.

But sometimes, it seemed like falling for Jay hadn't even been a choice, or a conscious decision. It had just... happened. Willow could barely distinguish where it had happened, even. One day, they'd just been two friends, hanging out and watching Jorflix and making quiet, friendly conversation. The next, he'd asked if he could kiss her, and she'd said yes with no hesitation. A lot of people said that they remembered their first kisses. Willow liked to say that she remembered her first with Jay, but honestly, each kiss felt like the first, that same tingle of nerves, that same softness of his lips, that same gentleness of his touch, his hand resting against her cheek over her short silver-mauve hair.

"Christmas," Jay called gently now, his voice a rumble against Willow's ear as she smiled into his chest. She lifted her head, green eyes sparkling with delight as she saw their small yellow-furred furbaby running across the bedroom floor towards them. He jumped up onto the bed with a friendly yip, immediately pushing himself between the two.

"There you are, boy, yes, there you are," Willow cooed, sitting up and reaching over to scratch the ruff of her dog's neck. Christmas panted happily, tail thumping on the bed as he sat between them. He licked Jay's face, making the Pandorian's eyes widen as he jerked back. Willow laughed. "See, everyone thinks you have a kissable face." Even Ariana, though Willow had quickly made her discomfort on that known. At least Ariana had someone now, so it wouldn't be so much of a problem anymore. At least, she hoped it wouldn't.

As she stroked her hands over Christmas' fur, Willow reached for the small potted plant that she kept on her nightstand by the bed. Most people had an alarm clock there, or a book, but Willow kept a potted plant for one very important reason. Using her plant manipulation, she was able to connect her magic to the plant, willing it to lend her some of its stems and flowers. The stem grew into a vine, flowers dotting the length of it. Once the vine was the length that she desired, Willow used her magic to wither the vine where it needed to be cut. Then, it was only too easy to loop the vine around Christmas' neck as a collar. Christmas looked up at her once it was on, as though asking why his mother had done this to him. Then, he sneezed.

"Do you think he likes it?" Willow asked, looking up at Jay. Jay only stared at her, his face alight with complete and utter adoration. Willow blushed, ducking her head and tucking her hair behind her ear.

"Well, if he doesn't, I do," said Jay. Sitting in the Fields of Gold with Willow, or anywhere with flowers, really, and lying with his head in his girlfriend's lap while she wove flowers into his hair or into a flower crown to sit atop his head, was one of Jay's favourite things to do. Why did Ydris want to destroy Jorvik so badly, when there was beauty like this in it? Surely, the beauty of Daine was enough to convince him to leave the earth alone. But Daine was only half, so that complicated things.

"Do you want one?" Willow asked, a smile tugging at her lips. Jay nodded, moving in bed to be closer to her. The lights had already been dimmed for bedtime, only the glow coming from Willow's lamp lighting the room in a soft yellow light. But it was still plenty enough to see by, to see her face as Jay leaned in to kiss her again.

"Crown or merely braided flowers, do what you wish," said Jay. Sometimes, Willow almost expected Jay to refer to her as his queen. But Jay wasn't that dramatic. Besides, he may act like a member of the fae, what with his general confusion when it came to human things, but Jay was Pandorian. And they were different. For one thing, Jay looked human, save for the glowing pink runes that covered his body. Usually, he kept them glamoured, hidden from view (especially from view of Ydris, though Jay feared that the more powerful Pandorian would be able to see through his glamours to the runes underneath). But here, when they were at home, Jay didn't care so much about who saw his runic markings. They glowed faintly beneath his clothing, one poking out of the collar of his shirt and others curving out of his shirtsleeves.

Willow's fingers brushed one of these runes at his hairline as Jay got himself comfortable with his head on her chest. Willow propped herself up on the pillows, drew her little potted plant a little closer, and began to grow flowers of every variety and colour. Though mostly snowdrops, because those were special to them.

"You are so precious to me, Willow Northbook," Jay murmured, closing his eyes as Willow's fingers stroked comfortably over his blonde hair. This was why he kept it slightly long, so that Willow could more easily play with it and weave flowers into it. One of Willow's friends, Ariana, had once made a joke about the long hair, but Willow had shot them a glare rivalled by Gracie's that had quickly shut her up. Jay still had no idea what she'd been talking about to this day. He'd asked Willow, of course, he asked her everything that he was confused about, but she'd simply shrugged and said that it didn't matter. And so Jay had let the matter drop, because if Willow said that it wasn't important, then it wasn't important. Besides, that matter hadn’t seemed to bother her too much.

"You're very special to me, too, Jay," said Willow, smiling as her fingers continued to stroke over and weave through his hair. With her spare hand, she plucked off beautiful blooms to weave among the blond strands.

"No, really," said Jay, his voice becoming soft and slightly slurred as he drifted into the land of sleep. He remembered when he'd once been too afraid to sleep. But now, Willow was here. And he always had good dreams with her. Sometimes, he'd used to wonder if Willow was the good dream. But she wasn't. Willow was good, yes, but she wasn't a dream. None of this was. "I didn't come here looking for love, but I found it anyway. And I'm so glad I met you, I just, I love you so much. You make the whole world seem brighter, you're the most shining example of the human race, you and your other friends too of course, but I like you best."

Willow was glad, right now, that nobody could see the smile currently splitting her face. That nobody could see how she was grinning like a Cheshire cat, that nobody could see the tears that she could feel glittering in her green eyes. She hoped that none of them would spill, because it had taken Jay a while to figure out that happy tears were a thing, and still, to this day, he got worried when she teared up. Worried that something had upset her, or that he'd upset her in some way. Because the Pandoria thing had hurt her badly, the evidence was in the pink scars that decorated her body. And she had shown them to him, in the most platonic of ways, because he'd known. And she didn't want to keep any secrets from him. He knew about Kai, knew about how often she'd visited Pandoria when he'd been missing, knew about her struggles with some of her friends.

"Your eyes, like the green of the Everwind Fields. Your hair, like pale lavendar. Your skin, sun-kissed but still pale. And your voice as melodious as the Silversong River. Your company warms me like fire on the coldest of nights. But not a bad fire, more like the soft, gentle, warm glow of a campfire. Like our fire, currently heating our home."

Once, one of Willow's friends (it might have been Louisa, actually) had suggested that Jay write poetry about Willow. Willow had thought it an insult, though it hadn't been and that misunderstanding had thankfully quickly been cleared up. She still had the poetry that Jay had written to her and then read to her on a picnic date when their positions had been much like this. Flower crowns had adorned both their heads, and Jay had shucked out of his jacket to bare his slightly-muscular arms to the sun while Willow had grown flowers into his hair and he'd recited the poetry to her. That had been a definite 'happy tears' day, with many kisses afterwards to thank him.

"But your beauty and presence alone are not all that I love about you," said Jay, a smile curving his lips as Willow continued to place blooms into his hair. "You have been so kind to me through everything. Even with the formal way I speak, my confusion when it comes to human things, you explain all of it. You even got me a jPhone, though I still struggle to use it. You have taught me how to use laptops, how to access the internet, even how to play all kinds of music. Digitally, on discs, even some records." Because, during one 'educational' session, Jay had stumbled across vinyl records and had purchased himself a record player from jBay. He still had it, and some vinyl records, and he often enjoyed listening to the unique sound of them while relaxing with his girlfriend in their cottage every night.

"Well, someone had to teach you," said Willow, raising her head for one moment to wipe away her tears. "I didn't want you to... give yourself away in front of someone."

"A wise decision," said Jay. He almost opened his eyes when Willow moved her hand, but she just as quickly returned to braiding his hair, so he figured that nothing was wrong. She probably just had to scratch her nose or something, or move her hair out of the way.

"It's nice to have little things like that to focus on too," said Willow. "When everything seems so big, something as small as teaching your boyfriend how to use a jPhone can really calm a girl down. And you make me appreciate what I have too, I guess."

"The Earth is just so... wonderful," said Jay. Normally, he sounded more passionate. But now, he was too close to sleep. "Everything is wonderful. 'Specially you. Love you."

Willow smiled, feeling her boyfriend drifting off to sleep in her arms. She was so glad that this wasn't exactly a rare occurrence with them. It happened so often, in fact, that she reached over to her nightstand, picked up her phone, and snapped a photo once she was done braiding flowers into Jay's hair. He looked almost like a faerie prince like this, with Christmas snoozing on his chest. It was quite the comfortable little pile.

As she reached over to switch off her lamp, Willow caught sight of her grey cat Gracie standing in the bedroom doorway, lashing her tail angrily. Willow stifled a laugh at the sight of her, especially when the cat padded over, leaped up onto the bed, and decided to settle down to sleep on Jay's pillow. But that was okay- Jay had a better pillow anyway.


End file.
